Schiefelbein: Time for new magic

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 29, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Before he became the baseball coach at LSU and even in his first season here, Paul Mainieri would hear about those crazy postseason times at the old Alex Box Stadium.

It all sounded too good to be true. Impossible, really. These had to be exaggerations or maybe some kind of fondness clouded by the passage of time.

“I almost didn’t believe them,” Mainieri said. “What they were telling me was almost hard to believe.”

Now he can speak in testament. His eyes have seen. His ears have heard. His heart has pumped strong in the center of it all.

Oh, how the stadium came unglued during a seven-run rally to stave off elimination against UC Irvine one night and then carried over the next in a first-inning knockout blow that sent the Tigers to the College World Series.

“And then it happened,” Mainieri said. “It’s simply the most awesome experience you can have as a coach. I don’t know if I have the words to describe it really.”

NCAA postseason play always brought out the best in the old Alex Box. But that grand, time-tested stadium will sit quiet and idle a few hundred yards north of the state-of-the-art palace that is the new Alex Box Stadium.

To an extent, LSU’s game against Southern to open the tournament at 1 p.m. today is Opening Day, Part II.

“This is going to be a pretty good test, to see if it’s going to be the same advantage for us, postseason-wise,” LSU catcher Micah Gibbs said. “Is it as loud as the other place?”

What the old place had was an intimate, cramped feel, with that overhang to amplify the noise. The new joint has all those spread-out, chairback seats, along with the fancy suite setups.

Has something been lost? Is the place too cushy?

Said Mainieri, “I’m extremely interested to see how this new venue acts with postseason play. My guess is, they’re Louisiana people, they’re LSU supporters, that they’re going to come out here and want to have a lot of fun and realize they can have a lot to do with the success of our team. I have a feeling they’ll be into it.”

Said SU coach Roger Cador, “I think it’ll come alive, because these are the kind of fans who’ll make sure it’ll come alive. They have a definite home-field advantage here. … The difference, with these fans, is, they truly believe they can make a difference.”